I’ve mentioned that I’m biking through the Ozarks recently. A bunch of people have asked me what the Ozarks are. This post is going to dive into what the mysterious Ozarks are. 
Are the Ozarks really mountains? They currently are not as large or dramatic as the Appalachians or Rockies. The Ozarks are not mountains in the typical sense. The mountains in the west are either folded upward or uplifted along faults. Since Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma are relatively flat, compared to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the Ozarks represent a localized area of higher topographic relief. The Ozarks are really a plateau that has been uplifted and then dissected by streams eroding and down cutting through the uplifted area. Continue reading Just what are the Ozarks? →

Today I was woken up by the song Toto by Africa. Was is 6am already? I guess of all things to be woken up to that song is a good one. We packed up and rolled out by 7:10. The first couple miles were kinda creepy as the fog hadn’t completely lifted. Thankfully the shoulder was wide enough that we weren’t in danger from passing cars. Soon the fog lifted. After a few miles we were out of town and back into farmland. The sky was a light blue and the clouds looked surreal. It made me sad to think how little people will get to experience the wonderful diversity of the United States. I kept thinking of my plans after I was done this trip. I had to kept reminding myself to focus on biking and enjoy the ride. I would worry about that later. I soon hit a transcendence state and everything else disappeared. Rolling hills of green fields flew by. Both sides of the roads were flanked by thousands of wildflowers. Most abundant was Queen Anne’s Lace (which reminded of West Virginia), black eyed Susan’s, daisies, blue vervain, violets, and day-lilies. It was so beautiful and for some reason it made me want to scream. Unfortunately a slight wind picked up. It wasn’t a problem to bike in and in fact it felt good. The only problem was it kick up the hundreds of beetles and bees that were buzzing on the wildflowers. I kept getting hit by bugs. The beetles landed on me and stuck to my shirt and sun reflectors. I didn’t care as long as they didn’t fly down my shirt or craw in my helmet. Continue reading Day 23: happiness through misery  →

I stayed up entirely too late. Since we crammed all our bikes in the room it was a little tight. During the night we were woken up to a massive thunderstorm. The lightning flashed through the blinds and if I didn’t have to ride 80 miles the next day I would have gone outside to watch the storm. I wasn’t awake long and soon fell back asleep. 7:00 came all too soon. I feel like every morning all my motivation disappears but as soon as I force myself up I’m ready to go. It’s weird how fast 20 minutes can change my mood. Mark and Jolee were going to meet us at the coffee house so we headed over there. I’m further exploring coffee so I got another caramel mocha and a chocolate scone. The scone was delicious! I didn’t care for the mocha so much (it was mostly cream and really expensive). I think I preferred McDonald’s version. We are near Alley Springs national park and a ranger stopped by the coffee house. Since we are all wearing our American flag shirts he asked what it was for. We chatted for a bit and he asked to take our picture. He said he would try and put it up on the national park service website! How cool is that?! I chatted with him about how to work in a national park but he gave me the same advice everyone else does: apply to everything on USA jobs. As soon as Mark and Jolee showed up a steady rain began. It looks like I’m going to get drenched again today. I guess it’s better than being hot. Oh and I forgot to mention that I discovered the truth about Rule number 10 yesterday. Even though I didn’t have my panniers the Ozark hills were still difficult. I just went faster. Everytime I think I’ve gotten to the top I can see the hills go on for miles ahead. Sometimes it looks like one massive hill however when I think I’m halfway up it drops me down. The massive hill is a series of ups and downs. Unlike the Appalachians which hit you with one blow, the Ozarks sneakily hit you over and over again. You don’t even realize it until you’re climbing your 99th hill and all you can see is more steep slopes ahead. They beat you down until nothing’s left. Continue reading Day 22: A New Kind of Torture →

Today I got up at 6:20. I went to the bathroom and changed into my riding clothes. The weather called for rain. I think if I was by myself I would have taken another day off. The hostel was a really nice place to recuperate and rest up. It felt amazing to sleep in a real bed for two days. Today we had to do a big push to make up for taking yesterday off. We planned for 86 miles and if we felt good another 20 to get to Summerville. Then I remembered that Marks wife was going to meet us at the end of the day. She offered to carry our panniers in the camper. For the last couple of days I toyed with the idea that this was cheating and I should carry my bags the whole way. However one glance at the elevation profile and I immediately changed my mind. The Ozarks were in full swing and it really did look like a roller coaster ride. I reluctantly put my panniers with everyone else’s: in the camper. We rode about 3 miles and the stopped at yet another McDonald’s. I had cracked and order a breakfast sandwich. I downloaded the McDonald’s app and since I ordered a sandwich I got a free McCafe. I’ve never had one before so I got a caramel mocha. I couldn’t taste any coffee in it but I thought it was pretty good. Good enough that I would probably order it again. After 5 minutes of finishing it my heart started beating faster than normal. Boy was I wired! It probably didn’t help that before we left I also ate an awake granola bar which has enough caffeine equivalent to 1/2 cup of coffee. I couldn’t sit down and began to pace around McDonald’s. Continue reading Day 21: Cheater →

Marks wife and kids drove out to meet up with him for a few days and they arrived last night. We decided to take an impromptu rest day. I was secretly glad as there were a bunch of things I wanted to catch up on. The post office was closed when we got here yesterday so I have to go and mail somethings home. Mark and Jolee spent the night with their family and weren’t around when we got up. We laid around until someone suggested we go find coffee. There was a shop down the street. I don’t really drink coffee so I ordered a hot chocolate. Brent got a blueberry scone and it looked so good everyone else ordered one too. While eating we looked up things to do in Farmington. A local caught some of our conversation and made a few suggestions. One of them was to visit the Bonne Terre mine. We asked how far away it was as and he said only 15 miles like it wasn’t that far. Continue reading Day 20: rest day →

Day 16:

Continue reading Day 16-19 →

Today we woke up at 6:00. No one slept well due to the heat. The fact that it’s not even seven o’clock and its sweltering hot is not a good thing. I’ll have to monitor how much water I’m drinking closely. We hope to go 75 miles plus today. The terrain is suppose to look like yesterday so I don’t think it’ll be that bad. Thank goodness we are finally out of the Appalachian Mountains!
It’s now 9:10. I’m sitting in my tent. There’s a small chance of rain so I put my rain fly on. I don’t want to take a chance with the rain but I don’t know how I’m going to sleep when the inside of my tent feels like it’s slowly cooking me. Anyway let’s recap the day. Continue reading Day 14: two weeks down →

Day 13: 
Woke up about 6:15 to voices. I popped my head out of my tent to discover I was the last one up! I had to hurry so everyone wouldn’t be waiting on me to leave. I was feeling kinda sluggish so I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face. I hoped it would wake me up some but to no avail. The plan yesterday was to go 80 miles today. I wasn’t looking forward to it as the last couple of days we were only doing 50 to 60 miles. After studying the maps we noticed that we could cut out 20 miles by taking route 150 through Dansville and end in Springfield. Dansville also had a reputable bike shop where we figured we could get our bikes checked up. I haven’t noticed problems with my bike but it will nice to have peace of mind that my bike will be at 100%. Continue reading Day 13: Crusin’ →

Day 10: The 96%
I remember yesterday being long. I only went 67 miles so it wasn’t the longest day by far. However we climbed several big hills and got rained on quite a lot. It had been several days since any of us showered. We also hasn’t done laundry in a while. We tired to sink wash our clothes but it’s been so humid or rainy that nothing will dry or stay clean. To say the least we were gross. Clothes are heavy so I’m only carrying two shirts. One to ride in and one to sleep in. I can’t describe the sticky-ness of everything. Even over my geology field camp I think I was more clean. So it was a given that we stayed at a motel for the night. The closest one was in Hazard, KY. It’s called the Daniel Boone Motor Inn. To anyone else it would have been smelly but to us it was paradise. It was cheap, had showers, laundry and a steak house attached to it. So for the first night of the trip I paid 22 dollars for housing. It was an hour shower for sure. After everyone showered we walked down to the restaurant. Continue reading Day 10-12  →

The question: do I need to stop for the day? Before I call it quits for the day I ask myself the following questions.

1. How long have you been biking? If it’s been less than 5 hours stop complaining and keep going. If it’s been more than 5 hours continue to ask the following questions….
2. Are you dehydrated? If you are, drink water. If you’re not, doesn’t matter drink water anyway. Hydrate or die.
3. Are you angry? If you are it means your are hungry: Will something sugary work? Or salty Or candy? Or a piece of snickers or a handful of skittles? If not eat a Clif bar.
   If you’re not: eat something anyway. Eat anything you can find.
4. Are you climbing a hill?
   If yes how long have you been climbing? If more than 3 hours take a two minute break and get back at it! The hill will end eventually.
   If no: why are you complaining?
5. Is it sunny? If yes, are your sun reflectors on? Drink some water and be glad it’s not raining.
6. When was the last time you showered? If more than 3 days change your socks. If not, stop complaining, you’ve gone longer
7. Are you bored? If yes, turn on some music. Or talk to your companions. Or look at the beautiful scenery.
8. Are you sore? If yes, adjust your position. Drink more water.
9. Are you sore because you’re in the wrong gear? If climbing, gear down and be patient. You’ll get there eventually. If going down, why are you complaining? Enjoy the downhill.
10. Do you just need to review rule number 5 from The Rules? Yes. The answer is always yes.